𝟎𝟕𝟏.  𝐜𝐚𝐧'𝐭 𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡 𝐚 𝐛𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤

i'm too pretty for this ──── claire rosinkranz

☀︎ 𝐛𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐥𝐲𝐧'𝐬 𝐩𝐨𝐯

"𝖧𝖮𝖶'𝖲 𝖬𝖸 𝖡𝖤𝖲𝖳 𝖥𝖱𝖨𝖤𝖭𝖣?"

I swing around the wooden post to join Kiara who is sitting on the steps leading up to the Wreck. It's very obvious what she's doing. She's hiding── pulling a Houdini act from this party that's going on and from her parents.

When I arrived, I wasn't expecting to walk into a crowd of Kooks. We arrived just as Mike Carrera was doing a speech about his wife and his beloved daughter who is now hiding away. I don't know what this party is for, and personally, I don't care. I'm just here to find Kiara as per John B's request.

After speaking with Neville and getting the directions to hopefully finding Dad, he dropped us off at the Chateau where we took our boat to this party so we could round up the crew and get everyone involved. JJ is in charge of finding Pope and Cleo. I'm in charge of finding Kiara who I've, of course, found. John B is obviously in charge of finding Sarah.

I've found Kiara, and instead of dragging her away and demanding she follow us to another dangerous adventure, I'm just gonna sit with her because I could seriously do with a break. I need to not think about Dad being dead or at the mercy of Singh. No, I just need to have a break.

"Hi." Kiara forces a smile as she looks up at me. Something's bothering her, that much I can tell. First she's hiding, and now she's faking smiles. "I've missed you."

I smile widely. "I missed you too, Kie."

I've missed my girls a lot. I've missed my boy genius. I've been so caught up in all this family mess with Dad and John B, and when I'm not worrying about my family, I'm caught up in JJ which has been amazing, but I definitely haven't made enough time for my friends.

I move to sit beside Kiara, arm grazing hers. "How's my best friend?" I ask, repeating myself.

"Am I still your best friend?" she asks, confusing me. "Or will you also replace me with her?"

I huff out a laugh, remembering who she's talking about. "Oh. Is that why you're hiding? Your crush is──"

"I do not have a crush on her."

I laugh a little louder and more freely, and God it's a really nice feeling. "You definitely have a crush on her." She scoffs, shaking her head as I continue to laugh at her discomfort. I swing my arm over her shoulders, squeezing her tightly. "Aw. Have you moved on from me?"

"Oh, shut up." She shoves me away, but I think I catch her laughing too. "I don't like her. She's stolen my life, Brooke, which means she's probably going to steal you too."

"Well, I haven't seen her yet so──" Kiara pins me with a hard glare, stopping me from finishing my sentence. "I'm kidding. I love you. I'd never, ever replace you, I promise."

I place my hand on her shoulder, trying to keep her calm. "I don't like her," she insists, but I know my best friend. I know her very well. I mean, I've been on the receiving end of Kiara's feelings, so I know when she likes somebody. "I really don't." She seems insistent on the fact, I hear her.

"Okay." I nod, choosing to believe that she doesn't like, like her. "Regardless of how you feel... I am still your best friend, I promise."

"Good," she utters. "I hate her."

"Can I meet her?" The minute Kiara looks at me, I know I shouldn't have asked that. I nod firmly, taking it back immediately. "You know what? I don't need to meet her."

"Why meet her when you've met me?"

"Exactly." I scoff. "What was I thinking? God."

"I know. What were you thinking? I'm hurt."

"I'm sorry." I slide my hand across her back, placing my arm over her shoulders. "Besides hating your replacement──"

"Seriously?"

I laugh again, keeping my arm securely around her shoulders before she can shove me off. "I'm sorry. I had to," I chuckle, squeezing her arm. "Besides that, how's everything else?"

"Oh, fine. My parents just wanted to host some Kook party thing, I don't know." She glances at me, her smile tight-lipped. "Are you okay? Where have you been?"

"Well..." I scrunch my face up, hating that I have to tell this story again. The more I say it, the more comical it sounds. "No," I laugh awkwardly. "My dad was kidnapped."

Her head snaps to look at me. "What? He's missing again?"

"Yeah, he's a real big fan of going missing," I deadpan, nodding along like all is totally fine.

"Kidnapped by who?"

"Uh, by Singh. They're going to South America, so I've been instructed to tell you that we need to get down there, like, now."

I don't want to go to South America, not right this minute anyway. For one, we have no money, and for two── do people say for two?── we have no way of getting there. We have no passports, nor a plane, nor a boat that'll get us there. We're screwed. We basically have no plan other than rounding up the crew so we can figure something out.

Dad is so going to be dead.

That was morbid. Go me!

"South America?" She exhales a deep breath. "Wow. He likes disappearing, huh?"

I sigh, wishing that wasn't true. "Yep."

"What's the plan?"

"I haven't got a clue, and I don't really care at the moment." I sound horrible. So horrible. I mean, my father is missing again, and I can't even work up any kind of plan to get him out of the situation that he got himself into. I can't even get emotional as I've seen this happen before. He's disappeared before and when I didn't think he'd ever come back, he did, so I believe he'll come back once again. He's full of surprises after all.

"Hey." I glance at Kiara, my arm sliding from her shoulders and falling behind her. She's looking at me, a familiar gaze in her eye that I haven't seen in a long time. Her eyes soften in a similar way to how they did that night we kissed. "It'll be okay."

I open my mouth to speak, my words caught in my throat as I don't know what to say to that. I'm not sure if things will be okay. My dad could be dead, but I'm just... fine with that fact right now.

"Hey! Oh."

Both Kiara and I look away from each other, and I find myself to be staring forward at an unfamiliar face. Although, based off Kiara's scowl, I can already guess who this person is. She's leaning against the stair banister, chuckling softly.

"Hi. Sorry to interrupt." She bites down on her bottom lip, looking from me to Kiara. "Uh, Kie, your parents are looking for you."

She's beautiful. Like, seriously beautiful. Although, and I'm not judging, Kiara definitely has a type. Emory── that's her name, if I remember correctly. Brown, wavy hair that's pulled back into a ponytail. Dark brown eyes, so dark that, from afar, look black. She has a "who cares" look in her eye, if that makes sense. A soft face, but I wouldn't let that deceive you. She's got an easy, carefree smile that could easily be mistaken for fake.

Oh, and she absolutely likes Kiara in a more than acquaintance way. But hey, what do I know?

"Right." Kiara nods. "Well, I'm busy so..."

"I can see that." Flipping her ponytail over her shoulder, her eyes dart to me── the innocent one in all this, I swear. She's kind of scary. "You're Brooke, right?"

I peer at Kiara. "She knows me?"

"Yep." She says that, not Kiara. "It's very nice to meet you, Brooke."

She hates me.

I force a smile. "Yeah. You too."

"Right, well, I'll let you two get back to..." She wags her finger at us, acting like we were doing something scandalous when we were just talking. Does Emory know me, know me? Has Kiara talked about me? No, she says she hates her. Well, why is Emory looking at me like she wants to attack me? "I'll catch you later."

She spins away, strutting off like she should be some kind of model. She's not that tall, but the heels she's wearing so easily and freely make up for the lack of height. I think I might hate her and her ability to walk in heels.

I turn to Kiara, watching her stare at the space that Emory no longer occupies. "She hates me!"

"Yeah, sorry. Don't take it personally, she hates everyone."

Not you is what I nearly say but I fear she'll actually kill me if I utter another word about her and Emory.

"Seriously, what's the deal with her?"

"All I know is that my parents felt sorry for her and now she's living with us and..." Kiara sighs loudly, finally averting her eyes from the empty spot. "Her family moved from Miami because of money problems, I think, I don't know. Basically, her family kicked her out when she turned eighteen, and she started to sleep in her car outside The Wreck until my parents noticed something was wrong and they took her in out of pity. This was all whilst we were stuck on a deserted island."

"Wow." It actually sounds like they tried to replace Kiara. That's kind of fucked up, isn't it? How could so much happen in the space of a month?

"And to, you know, top it all off, my parents are looking into boarding schools for me." I've heard her parents threaten boarding school several times over the course of our friendship, but I never thought they'd act upon it. They can't, right? That would be insane.

"I'm sorry." I place my chin on her shoulder, wrapping my arm around hers.

Kiara shrugs. "It's whatever."

"It's not whatever, Kie. It's kind of fucked up."

"Yeah, well, it is what it is."

I hate that she just has to accept how her life has just completely derailed, it's not fair. If I had any bravery in the world right now, I'd march right up to Anna and Mike Carrera and demand they do the right thing in looking out for their daughter. Although, since returning from the island, I fear Anna and Mike's opinions of me have likely changed. In fact, I think they changed long before when John B was arrested for murder.

Before I can say anything more, Sarah steps around the corner, coming into eye view. She looks distressed, like she's been crying. "Hey." She comes to a halt, obviously not expecting me to also be here, but she just saw John B, right? "Oh, I'm sorry. I──"

"Hey, what's wrong?"

"Nothing." She wipes her eyes with the back of her hands, her head shaking slowly. She wants to walk away, that much I can see, but I can't let her. "I-I'm fine."

"Hey." I hit my hand on the step beside me, instructing her to come and sit. I pin her with a hard stare, hoping I can scare her into following my orders. "Talk to Sister B, alright?"

Kiara snorts out a laugh. "Sister B?"

"Don't question me. Just sit."

Sarah laughs a little harder, moving to sit down on the other side of me. The second she sits down, I swing my arm over her shoulders so that I'm now holding Kiara and Sarah. Both my girls are upset, but I'm determined to be here for both of them. That's my job as the best friend and sister(in-law), right?

"Okay. Talk to me. What's going on?"

Sarah sniffles, wiping the tears from her face. She glances at Kiara who offers her a single head nod── something I don't understand. Are they hiding something from me? I feel like I've missed out on something here. Dammit.

Can I just blame my dad for missing out?

"What's going on?" I ask, a little concerned.

"Brooke, I, uh..." Sarah inhales sharply. "I did something bad."

I press my lips together, unsure on what's going on. I shouldn't freak out until there's something to freak out about, right? "Okay."

"You might wanna kill me."

I scoff as that's ridiculous. "I could never wanna kill you, Sarah. What──"

"I kissed Topper," she interrupts, stealing the rest of my sentence. I rear my head back, trying to wrap my mind around that but all I keep thinking about is my brother and how he must've reacted. He's got to know, right? I mean, Sarah is upset, so I assume she's told him about it. Shit.

My arm drops from around her shoulders. "Oh."

"You wanna kill me." Her head drops into her hands. "God. I'm sorry." I look at her, seeing that she's obviously upset about this. Of course she's upset, I can understand that, and she does appear to be feeling guilty about what happened. I know Sarah. I know she's not a horrible, vindictive person. "It was a mistake, Brooke."

I nod along, hearing her. "Okay."

She lifts her head from her hands. "Do you hate me? Do you wanna kill me?"

"No." I lean my head into her arm, assuring her that I'm not the enemy here. I'm her best friend. I'm her sister, if you will. "I don't wanna kill you, Sarah. I also don't hate you, that's crazy."

Her eyes glisten with tears which tugs at my own heartstrings. "I cheated on your brother."

"It's okay. You didn't cheat on me, right?" I have no idea what to say, not when it comes to something like this, so just cracking a joke and smiling is best advice I can offer. "It's okay, Sarah. It's really okay."

"It's not okay. John B hates me."

"He doesn't hate you," Kiara says, speaking my mind. "He probably just... needs a minute."

"Or, like, a couple hours."

"That was a figure of speech, Brooke, I..." Kiara shakes her head, looking past me to Sarah. "It'll be okay. It was a mistake, right?"

"A huge mistake."

"Then it's okay," I say, pushing some of her hair behind her ear. "It's okay, Sarah."

Sarah's head falls, resting on my shoulder.

As John B's sister, I'm obviously going to be there to comfort him, but I see Sarah's hurt, I do. I don't understand why Sarah kissed Topper, and I don't want to understand if I'm being honest. She doesn't need to explain herself, not to me. She kissed Topper, that's the simple fact, but I can see that she's feeling guilty. She hates that she's done it, I know that.

I bring both Kiara and Sarah close to me, grateful to have them both, they have no idea.

"Wow. Sister B is way better than regular B."

"Just shut up," I laugh, leaning into Sarah.

"No, seriously, Sister B is──"

"Shut up."

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𝖶𝖧𝖤𝖭 𝖨 𝖫𝖤𝖠𝖵𝖤 𝖲𝖠𝖱𝖠𝖧 𝖠𝖭𝖣 𝖪𝖨𝖠𝖱𝖠，𝖳𝖧𝖤 𝖲𝖴𝖭 𝖨𝖲 𝖲𝖤𝖳𝖳𝖨𝖭𝖦．I go to find John B and JJ, unsurprised when I don't see Cleo and Pope with them. The moment I see my brother, I wrap my arms around him. "I'm sorry."

He sighs, knowing he can't turn down a hug from me. I did nothing wrong. He begrudgingly wraps his own arms around me, hugging back. "She cheated on me, B," he whispers, speaking quietly in my ear. "Sarah cheated on me."

"I know," I say, looking over my shoulder at JJ as he begins to get the boat ready so we can leave this place. I pull back from my brother, keeping my hands on his shoulders. "I'm sorry."

"After everything I've been going through, she's off hooking up with Topper?" He steps away from me, beyond frustrated. "I mean, what the hell?"

"We don't need them. Let's just go."

That saddens me because we do need them. Nobody is here. Nobody is going to be following. Kiara and Sarah are staying here. We can't find Pope and Cleo. It's just us, screwed and alone. Sarah and John B are now not speaking to one another. It's just us── the three of us like it has been for a lot of our life.

John B turns away, looking like he's about to walk to the boat, but he comes to a stop, instead looking out across the water at the party that's still buzzing. Both JJ and I follow his gaze, realising what he's looking at.

Sarah and Topper are hugging, locked in a tight embrace. I curse myself out, damn annoyed that they decided to hug right now. "Oh, John B. Don't you dare, John B," I grit out between my teeth, going to snatch his arm. "Don't you even think about it."

He steals his arm back, storming off from me and JJ. "John B!" I move, rushing to follow after him as he walks down the length of the dock. "Come on!" He's still walking quickly, shoving both JJ and I away so he can reach Topper and Sarah.

He's angry, I know that, but he is insane if he thinks he can do something like this. "John B!" John B barges past a waiter so he can reach Sarah and Topper. I reach out, not going for John B anymore, I just grab Sarah and pull her back as John B strides right up to Topper.

He pushes him, and every part of me wants to lunge forward. I can't have another Topper, John B showdown, not when the previous showdowns have ended poorly. "Feel good about yourself?" John B steps closer, trying to act threatening but he's just acting damn stupid.

Sarah steps away from me, moving to stop John B before he does something colossally stupid that nobody, not even I can pull him from. "Stop," Sarah insists, pulling at his arm but he doesn't make any attempt to step away.

A few snide comments are thrown from both John B and Topper, neither of them saying anything meaningful, and Sarah continues to talk over them, trying to stop anything from erupting.

Sarah forces herself in between Topper and John B, being the wedge in this scenario."For once in your life, would you please just turn around and walk away?" There's a gentle push in her voice that forces John B to reevaluate what he's done.

He stops, breathing heavily. His eyes flick down to Sarah for a moment, acknowledging her. When he begins to back away, moving back to join JJ and I, I feel myself breathe a little steadier now as I know he's going to come back and not get involved in another fight with Topper.

I reach out for John B, pulling on his arm and forcing him to follow. Just as he guides us in the direction of the boat, Topper decides to open that big mouth of his.

"Hey, no hard feelings, bro."

John B stops suddenly, looking down at me with eyes that I know well. I release his arm, knowing exactly what he's going to do and knowing I can't do anything to stop him. "John B..."

Right there in the middle of a fucking Kook party, John B spins around and sends his fist into the side of Topper's face, causing him to stumble ever so slightly. The music comes to an abrupt stop as John B moves like he's on fire, heading straight for Topper again before he has a chance to react.

"John B!" I want to move forward, needing to yank him back before this spins out of control but JJ brings an arm around my middle, bringing me back. "Stop!"

Another punch is thrown in Topper's direction, this one actually knocking him down to the ground. "Stop! John B!" God, he's going to either get killed or kill him, and I can't stand either of those options.

"John B!" Sarah calls out, trying to intervene but nobody can.

Topper is now on the ground, and John B moves to crouch over him, continuing to send punches at his face over and over and over again. Topper's face knocks from side to side as John B continues to fight him, not allowing him a chance to defend himself as he punches him ruthlessly.

I stare in horror, knowing I can't run forward and do a single thing as nothing will stop John B, not now. Topper is bleeding heavily, his face discoloured in a horrible cluster of black and blue. He's unconscious, I think, but John B doesn't seem to care. He can't seem to stop.

I place my hand on JJ's arm. "G-Get him to stop, JJ," I beg, pushing at him to go and drag my brother off Topper before he actually kills him because he looks just about ready to murder him, and I can't let that happen.

No. I can't let him be thrown in prison for real this time. No.

Along with Mike Carrera who definitely wants us dead now and away from his daughter, he and JJ drag John B up and off Topper. Once my brother is off Topper, Mike shoves John B hard, sending him towards me. I immediately grasp his arm, pulling him away. "Get out of here, all of you!"

I glance at Kiara, offering her an apologetic look. "Don't look back," I hear JJ say to John B as the three of us begin to walk away.

We're walking back down the dock, not sparing another glance to the party that has come to an abrupt stop thanks to John B. "She's a cheater. That's who she is," John B comments, only pissing me off. "I should've known."

"Do you have any idea what you just did?" JJ moves to untie the boat from the dock. "You're an idiot, John B. What the hell was that?"

He shakes his head. "Don't, Brooke."

"I cannot believe you just did that, in front of all these people."

I barge past him, moving to get on the boat.

I can't believe, after all that's happened, I still can't seem to catch a freaking break.

I need something good to happen. Anything.

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❀ soph speaks

introducing . . .
Danielle Campbell as Emory Thorne

brown hair, brown eyes . . . if you haven't noticed, kie has a type!

it was fun to write about the girls, i'd missed them until john b punched the shit outta topper

my writings been not as good lately, i've been feeling a lil unmotivated i hate it

i hate fight scenes too lol

thankyou for reading :)